Postcards from the "miracle" springs in Waukesha

The Power of Water: Waukesha Springs Era

Suffering from incurable diabetes, Col. Richard Dunbar drank 12 glasses of water from a spring at Bethesda in 1868 and declared himself cured. Dunbar's "miracle" led to the rise of Waukesha's tourist and resort industry, earning a reputation as the "Saratoga of the West." Advertisements of the springs and resort facilities took a variety of forms as these postcards from the height of the springs era illustrate.